Doing cloud cost and optimization management well often calls for the help of an external vendor. That’s why Amalgam Insights has been publishing our in-depth series on the challenges associated with running a cloud cost and optimization management practice, as well as reasons to rely on third-party platforms and services for assistance.
With that in mind, Amalgam Insights presents the third of our ten vendor profiles — this one featuring Apptio Cloudability. (As a refresher, the first profile focused on SADA ; the second on Spot by NetApp.)
Read on for our analysis, which is part of our new Vendor SmartList report,Control Your Cloud: Selecting Cloud Cost Management in the Face of Recession, available to download after purchase.
THE BOTTOM LINE: WHY APPTIO CLOUDABILITY FOR CLOUD COST AND OPTIMIZATION MANAGEMENT
- Built on Financial Operations (FinOps) principles
- AI capabilities based on more than a decade of cloud data
- Designed for users beyond the IT department
ABOUT APPTIO CLOUDABILITY
Apptio Cloudability is an Amalgam Insights Distinguished Vendor for Cloud Cost and Optimization Management.
Cloudability was founded in 2011 in Portland, Oregon, to manage cloud billing and usage cost data. It was acquired by Apptio in 2019 to add cloud cost management and optimization to ApptioOne’s capabilities. Bellevue, Washington-based Apptio supports more than 1,200 employees in offices in the United States, London, Sydney, Bangalore, and Krakow. Apptio serves midmarket organizations and enterprises, many of which fall within the Fortune 100.
Across its financial management portfolio, Apptio manages $650 billion in technology budget and Cloudability managed more than $9 billion in cloud spend in 2019 when it was acquired. The privately held company does not disclose how many customers it currently has, its annual revenue or other details including customer retention rates or Net Promoter Score.
APPTIO CLOUDABILITY’S OFFERING
Apptio brought in Cloudability in 2019 to augment its existing technology management capabilities; that strategy includes its October 2018 acquisition of FittedCloud to optimize cloud resources and the October 2020 acquisition of SaaSLicense for Software as a Service management.
Apptio Cloudability comprises cloud computing management and optimization — and, through the separate Total Cost module, reporting and analytics — for multicloud environments, containers, and software as a service (through the SaaSLicense acquisition). The platform is designed for IT, finance, and business teams seeking to manage cloud costs, although the company states that it now talks more with head executives — CEOs, CFOs, and cloud directors in Cloud Center of Excellence groups and procurement — during the sales process.
Apptio Cloudability ingests, normalizes, and structures billing usage data from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. This approach is used on an ongoing basis to continuously improve the economics of running cloud environments with financial operations (FinOps) principles in mind. Apptio Cloudability also delivers rightsizing recommendations for an organization’s cloud environment and AWS savings. Apptio Cloudability sees its users spend the most money on AWS, followed by Microsoft Azure, then Google Cloud. The platform’s savings plans capabilities show users where they can reduce and optimize cloud costs while also forecasting their spend.
Apptio Cloudability sets its pricing on the cloud spend covered under one or three-year contracts. It considers discounts on a case-by-case basis. Apptio Cloudability does not require a minimum number of users or spending. The standard Cloudability package comes with basic help desk and technical assistance. Add-on options include professional services (e.g., building a FinOps practice), training, and certification delivered through the FinOps Foundation. Apptio Cloudability offers optimization and allocation-assistance packages separately; they are priced based on the size of work required. Finally, the TotalCost module is available as an add-on, with tiered pricing based on annual cloud spend.
Through integrations and mapping, TotalCost covers all the major public cloud providers, as well as Oracle, Alibaba, and IBM, and ancillary cloud vendors including Snowflake and CrowdStrike. Cloudability uses TotalCost as a means for helping organizations better grasp all the cloud platforms and services influencing their total cost of cloud ownership, and charge back expenses as needed.
COMPETITION AND COMPETITIVE POSITIONING
Apptio Cloudability states that it wins business for its focus on FinOps capabilities, as well as its savings plans and rightsizing modules. The latter modules provide additional analytics and machine-learning capabilities for clients, allowing Apptio Cloudability to generate recommendations through proprietary algorithms that can analyze as much as 15 years’ worth of a company’s data.
Apptio Cloudability goes to market both through direct sales and through an emerging indirect channel made up of managed service providers and consultants.
APPTIO CLOUDABILITY’S PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Apptio Cloudability plans to keep investing in providing more detailed optimization recommendations for discounts, developing integrations with cloud data and hyperscaler vendors to support sourcing workflow, and supporting localization, currency, and data sovereignty updates to make Cloudability available in more geographies.
Amalgam Insights expects that Apptio will also invest in capabilities to support managed service providers with improved white-labeling and integration, and to continue developing container cost optimization capabilities for Kubernetes and Docker-based workloads.
AMALGAM INSIGHTS’ RECOMMENDATIONS
Amalgam Insights recommends that organizations, particularly those with multiple clouds, interested in a FinOps focus vet Apptio Cloudability. Apptio should be considered by organizations seeking to control costs and budget resources. Because of Apptio’s history in supporting FinOps as a formal practice, organizations with formal FinOps training or experience should assess Apptio. Amalgam Insights also recommends that organizations seeking to provide additional cloud cost visibility to non-IT executives (such as finance, accounting, and procurement) involved with cloud decision-making and tracking in support of those processes evaluate Apptio.
Need More Guidance Now?
Check out Amalgam Insights’ new Vendor SmartList report, Control Your Cloud: Selecting Cloud Cost Management in the Face of Recession, available for purchase. If you want to discuss your Cloud Cost Management challenges, please feel free to schedule time with us.
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